personal poem # 14
once on a time I put in (at my job) for
full professorship that’s the pinnacle
of pay and prestige I got turned down
the committee chair told me “you have
not yet internalized the professorial
ethos” I was co-teaching then with a
prof who also had an administration
post so he was rungs above me he came
walking across the parking lot briefcase
good suit I was alone in my car reading
phil hopped onto the rear bumper climbed
to the trunk traversed the roof jumped
to the hood then front bumper finally
the pavement sauntered off without
a backward glance I sent him a note
via campus mail, “you have not yet
internalized the professorial ethos!”
©2016 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2016.
